July 8, 2021
The Doors are Open
As of June 22, 2021, the state of Michigan has been opened to full capacity! In addition, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) have also recently rescinded their COVID-19 Emergency Rules. As a result, Greenleaf Trust will be moving to Phase II of our Back to the Office Plan starting July 6. That means our doors are fully open to clients and teammates.
This is exciting news for all of us! Greenleafians, as we refer to ourselves, are the heart of our business and the foundation for our success. We derive our strength from each other and our communities. We value the continuous improvement of our work environment to create a close-knit, team-oriented culture, while working together for the good of our clients and the organization. It’s time to celebrate and unite behind our core pillars of business and workplace culture that have driven us to 23 years of terrific success. COVID-19 was what happened to us, remote work was an outcome of what happened to us. We were great at that, but now is the beginning of the return to our cultural core.
Over the last 15 months, we made sure our teammates stayed safe and were well taken care of through our Greenleaf Cares Program. This initiative allowed all employees to participate in financial support or seek reimbursement for the things that were important and necessary for them during the difficult times. Funds could be used for increased expenses for childcare, education, and for technology needs due to work-from-home arrangements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through Greenleaf Cares, we were able to provide, on average, about $1,000 per family in support to teammates and had 74% of them participate in the program. Most (56%) of that support went to helping them with extra family care expenses like increased costs for day care and education. The other 44% went to helping them with extra technology expenses such as internet upgrades and the proper equipment needed to work remotely. Through our regular Wellness Program, we also reimbursed teammates for housecleaning, subscriptions to grocery delivery services, and workout apps.
Our culture has expanded as well. We hired many new teammates during COVID-19, many that we have never met in person, and many that have yet to experience our culture in its finest form. These new team members represent about 15% of our current team. Needless to say, we are planning a time to celebrate them all in person soon.
We have achieved amazing things while apart over the past 15 months and our Business as Unusual mantra has served us well over that time frame. It will be exciting to see how much stronger we will all be when back in the office together again under a Business as Usual mantra!